can anybody give me some advice on what glue to use on my neoprene spray skirt the strips that cover the stitching on my prijon spray skirt are coming loose thus exposing the stitching i want to be careful not to put on anything that would cause harm.
thanks:)
You could use ordinary neoprene
cement. You paint a coupla coats on both surfaces and let dry according to directions before pressing the cover strips to the seams.
I use Aquaseal also, but for this application it may be better to make use of a contact cement type adhesive (which neoprene cement resembles) to get the strips laid down neatly. If you use Aquaseal, you will have the problem of getting the strips to lay down properly while the Aquaseal dries. With neoprene cement it’s just a matter of sensible application, drying, and pressing together at the right time.
Goo
I had a small tear in one of my spray skirts. I went to a local dive shop to see what they use on neoprene because I had read about aquaseal. The owner said forget getting aquaseal and to get a product called Shoe Goo at a shoe repair shop. He said it worked as well and was cheaper. I followed his directions and a year later the tear repair is holding solid.
Iron
That strip could be Melco tape or similar which has a heat activated adhesive. If there is still some adhesive on the back of the tape, you could try ironing it back on. Set the iron to medium heat. Try heating a little bit at a time, but avoid overheating the neoprene or you could damage it - just as you could damage any clothing with an iron. Try not to stretch the tape too much while ironing. If this doesn’t work then you could move up to fixing it with the black (neoprene) contact cement.
For small holes and tears, that is true
enough, although I can almost always do just as good a job with neoprene cement as you can with Goop.
The place where Goop and Aquaseal do not work is when the damage to be repaired does not want to stay in place while the urethane dries. Neoprene fabric is often under hidden tensions put in place when the skirt was sewn, and when a tear occurs, the edges to be mated do not want to stay in place.
That’s where neoprene cement shines. Both edges are painted, allowed to dry the right amount, and then they can be pressed together, permanently, in exactly the desired configuration.
I was using neoprene cement back in the 70s, well before the flexible urethane adhesives had appeared. Nowadays it seems that many people have no idea what neoprene cement can do. But after all, the factory puts the seams together with neoprene cement, NOT Goop or Aquaseal.
One wonders whether the tape has any
serious purpose, or is just on there to make the seam look “nice.”